Talk:AFOH/@comment-27015223-20151013144344
Minotaur Warp Tank The Minotaur is a revolutionary Armored Fighting Vehicle designed with warp capability to equip Space Marine forces. It is the first of its kind and signals the return of boarding actions in ship-to-ship warfare. It was designed to have strong armament with considerations for use in the confined internal spaces of a capital warship alongside infantry, as well as incredibly strong protection for its size and weight. As the tank is meant for operations "indoors" both assaulting and defending warships and other installations, it has very low mobility, but very good maneuverability. It has a crew of 5, the gunner in the one-man turret, with the commander and driver in the frontal hull, and 2 mini gun turret gunners behind them. Despite its large appearance, the Minotaur is actually relatively small, being shorter in length, height, and width than the Manticore MBT. The Minotaur's primary armament is a 127mm gun with 28 rounds. It has an autoloader with an RoF of 12 rounds per minute. It will be equipped mostly with High Explosive Dual Purpose (HEDP) and Flechette rounds to breach ship compartments and engage enemy infantry, but around 4 rounds of APFSDS may be carried "just in case". The 127mm was chosen because was able to fit in the one-man turret and its ammo was small enough for a decent capacity. It has one disadvantage, however, of having an extremely powerful muzzle blast which could incapacitate close by friendly infantry in the confines of a warship's interior. For use when the 127mm cannon may not be optimal, the Minotaur also carries two 70mm rocket pods, one on each side of the turret, as alternate primary weapons. Each pod carries 19 rockets, for a total of 38. Typically, 1 pod will carry unguided HEDP rockets, while the other will carry guided, air-burst HE-Frag rockets. The Minotaur also has a 7.62mm coaxial MG, and a hull-mounted 7.62mm MG for the Commander, as well as two wing-mounted 7.62mm mini guns for heavy suppressive fire against enemy personnel attempting to repel boarders. The Minotaur has very heavy armor for its size and weight. Much of the sloped bulk of its hull and turret is armor. The outer layer consists of modular add-on blocks of the advanced composite NERA armor recently developed by DORAD. The tank is unique in that its frontal and side armor on both the hull and turret are all of the same thickness, with its only weaknesses being the rear hull and turret. ERA is not used due to risk of harming nearby friendly infantry. DERA, however, is utilized because of its high-speed, low collateral-damage, close-in engagement abilities as an APS. The tank also has a its own fully enclosed and sealed life support system that can last 8 hours for the 5 crew. The Minotaur does not mount a powerful, expensive engine, greatly cutting down on costs. This is because the tank is meant for "indoor" operations onboard ships where great mobility is not a concern, and so has a top speed of only 32 km/h. The tank does, however, have quad treads for greater maneuverability, which are fitted with Mecanum Rollers that allow it to drive sideways if needed. Combined with a pivoting ability and 4-tread steering, the Minotaur is capable of some surprisingly delicate driving, and is one of the most nimble vehicles in the AFOH arsenal. Perhaps one day the warp capability will become standard for all MBTs, allowing more versatile and capable vehicles like the Martel or Manticore to take over this role. UPDATE: THE CURRENT PROTOTYPES OF WARP AFVS HAVE BEEN DEEMED UNSUCCESSFUL. DEVELOPMENT WILL CONTINUE. UPDATE: THE DEVELOPMENT OF WARP AFVS HAS BEEN HALTED AT THIS TIME DUE TO INSUFFICIENT LEVELS OF TECHNOLOGY.